Do you think? It seems to me that his struggle has been a hard one that he tried to keep private. I feel a great amount of sadness for anyone who has had to come to terms with revealing his orientation to a probing and then disdainful public, especially a public that is as presumptuous and invasive with regard to personal matters as ours is. I don't think that everything a star does is always for money or attention, especially judging from the way he has avoided the media for so long. So he came out. The closet is a huge one, and it's time for people to get back to allowing an entertainer to simply entertain, starting with the entertainers themselves agreeing to do so. But, again, I don't consider Martin one of those attention seekers.

The first time I heard of Menudo was in the 1970's when they gave a free concert in the Fajardo PR town plaza. At that time, nobody would have paid a nickle to see them.

Then I spent the next 15 or so years being dragged by my daughter to every Menudo concert hither and yon as well as to activities for the Menudomaniacs, such as my daughter and her friends. She hasn't lived in with us for 10 years and there are still Menudo posters on her bedroom door.

All credit goes to Edgar Diaz for taking a nothing concept and making it into a global phenomenom.

"Please keep your sex life to yourself. The vast majority of heteros do."

Bullshit. If you refer to your wife, you're talking about your sex life.

Namely that since you're married you probably don't have a sex life anymore.

As to Ricky Martin and "coming out", if anyone ever does or says anything to conceal the fact that they're a queer, they deserve no praise for admitting it once the pressure's off. It's cowardice, just like that makeup-slathered dough-ball that lost American Idol.

There's a difference between not wanting to make a public issue of your private life and actively taking steps to conceal and mislead. You don't get any credit for the latter.

I long got the impression that Martin was mostly sexually indifferent with homosexual leanings.

Serious question to the gay commenters here: since Martin apparently able to perform with women, is he really gay or bisexual? Despite all the acronyms, are bisexual men really accepted by the gay community at large (if there is such a thing.)

1. Ultimately you are what you say you are. But loads of closeted gay men can "put a bag over her head and do it for Old Glory" with the wife. One guy I know had two daughters and a son in a marriage which ended shortly after he admitted to her that while he was doing the sperm delivery, he was thinking of men.

2. I would say that bisexual men are not considered "one of us" by gay men. Many feel that bi men are in denial about their preference. However, most bi men tend to shut up about it. You only usually find out in after-playtime banter, right after they have had a jolly good rodgering.

"Serious question to the gay commenters here: since Martin apparently able to perform with women, is he really gay or bisexual?"

I don't actually think human sexuality is a clearly divisible set of categories. There's a "sliding scale": some of us like only lads, some of us like only lasses, but that merely defines the edges of the spectrum. I've been with quite a few men who enjoy relations with women but who (for various reasons) also occasionally like to be with men. They don't consider themselves "bi-sexual" because they don't see their homosexual activities as part of their identities. I respect this and think it's a far healthier model than going through some identity-politics psychodrama in order to figure out what you really are. A lot of people don't like to identify themselves as gay or bisexual because of the association of those categories with the GLBTSTGQETC "community". Why burden yourself with that load of political, social and ideological luggage when you simply like to get it on with another man sometimes?

"Despite all the acronyms, are bisexual men really accepted by the gay community at large (if there is such a thing.)"

There is not such a thing so your question is invalid.

"Communities" of any kind are fictions propagated by alt-weeklies and Public Broadcasting.

Bullshit. If you refer to your wife, you're talking about your sex life.

Namely that since you're married you probably don't have a sex life anymore.

Bullshit right back at you.

I'm not married. I'm widowed.

I noticed you skipped over the major part of what I said... namely, that the great oppression of gays is manufactured martyrdom for the sake of political gain.

Every political group loves to manufacture martyrs. And, it's usually... well... bullshit.

So, yes, the answer for gays is to keep their mouths shut about their fucking sex lives. They aren't martyrs. In the places where I live, everybody's kissing their asses and telling them that they're saints.

When is everybody going to quit pretending that gays are martyrs to some sort of oppressions.

You live in Madison. I live in NYC and Woodstock, NY, two locales that are just as liberal as Madison.

Everybody's kissing the gays' asses in Madison, just like they are in NYC and Woodstock. When are you going to get off the bandwagon and mention this reality?

In NYC and Woodstock, gays are treated as if they were secular saints. White kids discovered that, if they come out as gay, they can pretend to be oppressed, just like blacks under Jim Crow. Plenty of young people in NYC and Woodstock are pretending to be gay for the perks.

Come on, Ann, you usually have a pretty strong bullshit detector. When are you going to dump the poor, martyred gay bit? It's a lie.

Who the hell has been talking about gay people as "martyrs"? And what kids pretend that they're gay to be treated better?? Tell me what sort of weird place you live in so I can either avoid it or move there.

You might as well give it up, dude. Ann's a liberal: she's totally without empathy for the real world in front of her - like the black man saying shut up about my race - while imagining herself sticking up for all the (vaguely defined) oppressed of the world, so we know (in the abstract) how much she cares. In this day and age it's total bullshit but she's sticking to it until it's safe to do otherwise. Which, of course, is the sign of an intellectual coward but, sigh, we love her anyway.

In honor of Ricky Martin coming out, I would like to to declare the 29th of March a new holiday, which I have named "the 29th of March Day".

Everyone will celebrate by saying things like "I can speak this English phrase" or "you can hear me talking". People will also abstain from things like reading mystery novels or watching movies with twists.

If you're gay and have ever come out to people you can come out to them again. And if you're straight, feel free to tell people you are a heterosexual, especially if you're with your spouse or date.

Why are courage and homosexuality a tag for this thread. When did the moniker of courage or being courageous all of a sudden stick to people who have done something that no one gives two shits about? Oh, little Ricky claims he's a homo, well that's just great. The real story should have been is who in this current reality didn't realize that. Interview them.

i'll believe that nobody cares if you're gay when thousands don't flock to voting booths to deny gay people legal equality...i'll believe it when discrimination isn't written into state constitutions... i'll believe it when most states in this country no longer can deny employment and housing because of sexual orientation... i'll believe it when gay soldiers are not dishonorably discharged...i'll believe it when same-sex couples can share innocent moments of affection without fearing for their well-being if not their lives... i'll belive it when gay folks are denied custody of their own children or are denied the right to adopt...i'll believe it when gay kids are no longer disowned by their families......i'll believe it when celebrities no longer have 'beards' and need not fear losing their careers should it become known that they are gay...i'll believe it when churches no longer preach that being gay is evil...i'll believe it when gay men are not imprisoned, tortured, and executed around the world for the crime of loving each other. until that time, i don't believe that 'nobody cares'...seems to me that there's a whole heck of a lot of 'caring' going on.

Every time I think I could warm up to conservatism, Maggie Gallagher posts someting insanely bigoted about gays on National Review Corner. Shouldn't "limited government" also mean "leaving people the fuck alone?"

Presumably straight people who spend their careers battling gay liberty have their own agendas most of the time. It's the Terry Dolan phenomenon.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if James Dobson sucks dick regularly. I bet he's seen the inside of a Denver bath house more than once.

Shouldn't "limited government" also mean "leaving people the fuck alone?"

I've long made that point: true conservatism would recoil in horror at the the government prosecuting gays or banning sex toys. True conservatism would say that marriage is none of the governments business and if that means gays get married or polygamists get married, so be it.

This is why I have pretty much rejected social conservatism, though I remain a staunch fiscal conservative. Too many social conservatives strike me as simply being anti-abortion, anti-gay liberals who believe in God.

i'll believe that nobody cares if you're gay when thousands don't flock to voting booths to deny gay people legal equality...i'll believe it when discrimination isn't written into state constitutions... i'll believe it when most states in this country no longer can deny employment and housing because of sexual orientation... i'll believe it when gay soldiers are not dishonorably discharged...i'll believe it when same-sex couples can share innocent moments of affection without fearing for their well-being if not their lives... i'll belive it when gay folks are denied custody of their own children or are denied the right to adopt...i'll believe it when gay kids are no longer disowned by their families......i'll believe it when celebrities no longer have 'beards' and need not fear losing their careers should it become known that they are gay...i'll believe it when churches no longer preach that being gay is evil...i'll believe it when gay men are not imprisoned, tortured, and executed around the world for the crime of loving each other. until that time, i don't believe that 'nobody cares'...seems to me that there's a whole heck of a lot of 'caring' going on.